Sensory profiles and consumer acceptability of a range of sugar-reduced products on the UK market

Current UK intake of non-milk extrinsic sugars (NMES) is above recommendations. Reducing the sugar content of processed high sugar foods through reformulation is one option for reducing consumption of NMES at a population level. However, reformulation can alter the sensory attributes of food products and influence consumer liking. This study evaluated consumer acceptance of a selection of products that are commercially-available in the UK; these included regular and sugar-reduced baked beans, strawberry jam, milk chocolate, cola and cranberry & raspberry juice. Sweeteners were present in the reformulated chocolate (maltitol), cola (aspartame and acesulfame-K) and juice (sucralose) samples. Healthy, non-smoking consumers (n = 116; 55 men, 61 women, age: 33 ± 9 years; BMI: 25.7 ± 4.6 kg/m2) rated the products for overall liking and on liking of appearance, flavor and texture using a nine-point hedonic scale. There were significant differences between standard and reduced sugar products in consumers’ overall liking and on liking of each modality (appearance, flavor and texture; all P < 0.0001). For overall liking, only the regular beans and cola were significantly more liked than their reformulated counterparts (P < 0.0001). Cluster analysis identified three consumer clusters that were representative of different patterns of consumer liking. For the largest cluster (cluster 3: 45%), there was a significant difference in mean liking scores across all products, except jam. Differences in liking were predominantly driven by sweet taste in 2 out of 3 clusters. The current research has demonstrated that a high proportion of consumers prefer conventional products over sugar-reduced products across a wide range of product types (45%) or across selected products (27%), when tasted unbranded, and so there is room for further optimization of commercial reduced sugar products that were evaluated in the current study. Future work should evaluate strategies to facilitate compliance to dietary recommendations on NMES and free sugars, such as the impact of sugar-reduced food exposure on their acceptance.

Determination of sorbate and benzoate in beverage samples by capillary electrophoresis - Optimization of the method with inspection of ionic mobilities

The aim of this study was to develop a fast capillary electrophoresis method for the determination of benzoate and sorbate ions in commercial beverages. In the method development the pH and constituents of the background electrolyte were selected using the effective mobility versus pH curves. As the high resolution obtained experimentally for sorbate and benzoate in the studies presented in the literature is not in agreement with that expected from the ionic mobility values published, a procedure to determine these values was carried out. The salicylate ion was used as the internal standard. The background electrolyte was composed of 25 mmol L(-1) tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane and 12.5 mmol L(-1) 2-hydroxyisobutyric acid, atpH 8.1.Separation was conducted in a fused-silica capillary(32 cm total length and 8.5 cm effective length, 50 mu m I.D.), with short-end injection configuration and direct UV detection at 200 nm for benzoate and salicylate and 254 nm for sorbate ions. The run time was only 28 s. A few figures of merit of the proposed method include: good linearity (R(2) > 0.999), limit of detection of 0.9 and 0.3 mg L(-1) for benzoate and sorbate, respectively, inter-day precision better than 2.7% (n =9) and recovery in the range 97.9-105%. Beverage samples were prepared by simple dilution with deionized water (1:11, v/v). Concentrations in the range of 197-401 mg L(-1) for benzoate and 28-144 mg L(-1) for sorbate were found in soft drinks and tea. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Caffeine as a flavor additive in soft-drinks

Over 60% of soft-drinks sold in the United States contain caffeine, a mildly addictive psycho-active chemical, as a flavor additive. Using sweeteners as controls, we assessed whether caffeine has flavor activity in a cola soft-drink. A forced-choice triangle discrimination methodology was used to determine detection thresholds of caffeine in sweeteners and a cola beverage. The subjects (<i>n</i>=30, 28 female, 23&plusmn;4 years old) were trained tasters and completed over 1600 discrimination tests during the study. The mean detection thresholds for caffeine in the sweet solutions were: 0.333&plusmn;0.1 mM sucrose; 0.467&plusmn;0.29 mM aspartame; 0.462&plusmn;0.3 mM sucralose, well below the concentration in common cola beverages (0.55&ndash;0.67 mM). A fixed concentration of caffeine, corresponding to the concentration of caffeine in a common cola beverage (0.67 mM) was added to the sweeteners and a non-caffeinated cola beverage. Subjects could distinguish between caffeinated and non-caffeinated sweeteners (p&lt;0.001), but all subjects failed to distinguish between caffeinated and non-caffeinated cola beverage (<i>p</i>=1.0). Caffeine has no flavor activity in soft-drinks yet will induce a physiologic and psychologic desire to consume the drink.<br />

A psychophysical investigation of binary bitter-compound interactions

The aim of this study was to determine if taste interactions occur when bitter stimuli are mixed. Eight bitter stimuli were employed: denatonium benzoate (DB), quinine-HCl (QHCl), sucrose octaacetate (SOA), urea, L-tryptophan (L-trp), L-phenylalanine (L-phe), ranitidine-HCl, and Tetralone. The first experiment constructed individual psychophysical curves for each subject (n = 19) for each compound to account for individual differences in sensitivities when presenting bitter compounds in experiment 2. Correlation analysis revealed two groupings of bitter compounds at low intensity (1, L-trp, L-phe, and ranitidine; 2, SOA and QHCl), but the correlations within each group decreased as the perceived intensity increased. In experiment 2, intensity ratings and two-alternative forced-choice discrimination tasks showed that bitter compounds generally combine additively in mixture and do not show interactions with a few specific exceptions. The methods employed detected synergy among sweeteners, but could not detect synergy among these eight bitter compounds. In general, the perceived bitterness of these binary bitter-compound mixtures was an additive function of the total bitter-inducing stimuli in the mouth.<br />

Bitterness suppression with zinc sulfate and na-cyclamate: a model of combined peripheral and central neural approaches to flavor modification

<b>Purpose</b> Zinc sulfate is known to inhibit the bitterness of the antimalarial agent quinine [R. S. J. Keast. The effect of zinc on human taste perception. J. Food Sci. 68:1871&ndash;1877 (2003)]. In the present work, we investigated whether zinc sulfate would inhibit other bitter-tasting compounds and pharmaceuticals. The utility of zinc as a general bitterness inhibitor is compromised, however, by the fact that it is also a good sweetness inhibitor [R. S. J. Keast, T. Canty, and P. A. S. Breslin. Oral zinc sulfate solutions inhibit sweet taste perception. Chem. Senses 29:513&ndash;521 (2004)] and would interfere with the taste of complex formulations. Yet, zinc sulfate does not inhibit the sweetener Na-cyclamate. Thus, we determined whether a mixture of zinc sulfate and Na-cyclamate would be a particularly effective combination for bitterness inhibition (Zn) and masking (cyclamate). <br /><br /><b>Method</b> We used human taste psychophysical procedures with chemical solutions to assess bitterness blocking. <br /><br /><b>Results</b> Zinc sulfate significantly inhibited the bitterness of quinine&ndash;HCl, Tetralone, and denatonium benzoate (DB) (p &lt; 0.05), but had no significant effect on the bitterness of sucrose octa-acetate, pseudoephedrine (PSE), and dextromethorphan. A second experiment examined the influence of zinc sulfate on bittersweet mixtures. The bitter compounds were DB and PSE, and the sweeteners were sucrose (inhibited by 25 mM zinc sulfate) and Na-cyclamate (not inhibited by zinc sulfate). The combination of zinc sulfate and Na-cyclamate most effectively inhibited DB bitterness (86%) (p &lt; 0.0016), whereas the mixture's inhibition of PSE bitterness was not different from that of Na-cyclamate alone. <br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b> A combination of Na-cyclamate and zinc sulfate was most effective at inhibiting bitterness. Thus, the combined use of peripheral oral and central cognitive bitterness reduction strategies should be particularly effective for improving the flavor profile of bitter-tasting foods and pharmaceutical formulations. <br />

Oral zinc sulfate solutions inhibit sweet taste perception

We investigated the ability of zinc sulfate (5, 25, 50 mM) to inhibit the sweetness of 12 chemically diverse sweeteners, which were all intensity matched to 300 mM sucrose [800 mM glucose, 475 mM fructose, 3.25 mM aspartame, 3.5 mM saccharin, 12 mM sodium cyclamate, 14 mM acesulfame-K, 1.04 M sorbitol, 0.629 mM sucralose, 0.375 mM neohesperidin dihydrochalcone (NHDC), 1.5 mM stevioside and 0.0163 mM thaumatin]. Zinc sulfate inhibited the sweetness of most compounds in a concentration dependent manner, peaking with 80% inhibition by 50 mM. Curiously, zinc sulfate never inhibited the sweetness of Na-cyclamate. This suggests that Na-cyclamate may access a sweet taste mechanism that is different from the other sweeteners, which were inhibited uniformly (except thaumatin) at every concentration of zinc sulfate. We hypothesize that this set of compounds either accesses a single receptor or multiple receptors that are inhibited equally by zinc sulfate at each concentration.<br />

Anti-amnesic effect of enzyme extracted stevioside from Stevia rebaudiana

The increasing consumption of sucrose has resulted in several nutritional and medicinal problems, including obesity. There is an alarming rise in the prevalence of obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndrome in children and adults around the world, partly related to increasing availability of energy-dense, high-calorie foods, and perhaps to increased consumption of sugar and particularly fructose sweetened beverages. Therefore, low calorie sweeteners are urgently required to substitute table sugar.<br /><br />Stevioside, a diterpene glycoside, is well known for its intense sweetness and is used as a non-caloric sweetener. Its potential widespread use requires an easy and effective extraction method. Enzymatic extraction of stevioside from Stevia rebaudiana leaves with cellulase, pectinase and hemicellulase using various parameters such as concentration of enzyme, incubation time and temperature was optimized. The extraction conditions were further optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). Under the optimized conditions, the experimental values were in close agreement with predicted model and resulted in a three times yield enhancement of stevioside.<br /><br />Various studies have revealed that in addition to sweetening nature of stevisoide, it exerts beneficial effects including antihypertensive, anti-hyperglycemic, anti-human rotavirus, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antitumor actions. Its anti-amnesic potential remains to be explored, therefore the present study has been undertaken to investigate the beneficial effect of stevioside in memory deficit of rats employing scopolamine induced amnesia as an animal model.<br /><br />Significance: Stevia is gaining significance in different parts of the world and is expected to develop into a major source of high potency sweetener for the growing natural food market. There is a strong possibility that Stevia sweeteners could replace aspartame in some diet variants. In addition, Stevia is expected to be used as a part substitute for sugar and also used in combination with other artificial sweeteners in the emerging phase of life cycle.<br />

The caffeine-calorie effect in sugar-sweetened beverages

The presence of caffeine in sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) may be an important contributor to the growing obesity epidemic. The removal of caffeine, along with co-removal of a proportion of sugars from the beverage will result in regular SSB consumers reducing their energy intake without the need for other dietary or&nbsp;lifestyle changes. <br />

TOBY : Early intervention in autism through technology

We describe TOBY Playpad, an early intervention program for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). TOBY teaches the teacher - the parent - during the crucial period following diagnosis, which often coincides with no access to formal therapy. We reflect on TOBY's evolution from tabletop aid for flashcards to an iPad app covering a syllabus of 326 activities across 51 skills known to be deficient for ASD children, such imitation, joint attention and language. The design challenges unique to TOBY are the need to adapt to marked differences in each child's skills and rate of development (a trait of ASD) and teach parents unfamiliar concepts core to behavioural therapy, such as reinforcement, prompting, and fading. We report on three trials that successively decrease oversight and increase parental autonomy, and demonstrate clear evidence of learning. TOBY's uniquely intertwined Natural Environment Tasks are found to be effective for children and popular with parents. Copyright 2013 ACM.

The role of sweet taste in satiation and satiety

Increased energy consumption, especially increased consumption of sweet energy-dense food, is thought to be one of the main contributors to the escalating rates in overweight individuals and obesity globally. The individual's ability to detect or sense sweetness in the oral cavity is thought to be one of many factors influencing food acceptance, and therefore, taste may play an essential role in modulating food acceptance and/or energy intake. Emerging evidence now suggests that the sweet taste signaling mechanisms identified in the oral cavity also operate in the gastrointestinal system and may influence the development of satiety. Understanding the individual differences in detecting sweetness in both the oral and gastrointestinal system towards both caloric sugar and high intensity sweetener and the functional role of the sweet taste system may be important in understanding the reasons for excess energy intake. This review will summarize evidence of possible associations between the sweet taste mechanisms within the oral cavity, gastrointestinal tract and the brain systems towards both caloric sugar and high intensity sweetener and sweet taste function, which may influence satiation, satiety and, perhaps, predisposition to being overweight and obesity.

Quantifying epistemic actions in human-computer interaction

As digital systems move away from traditional desktop setups, new interaction paradigms are emerging that better integrate with users’ realworld surroundings, and better support users’ individual needs. While promising, these modern interaction paradigms also present new challenges, such as a lack of paradigm-specific tools to systematically evaluate and fully understand their use. This dissertation tackles this issue by framing empirical studies of three novel digital systems in embodied cognition – an exciting new perspective in cognitive science where the body and its interactions with the physical world take a central role in human cognition. This is achieved by first, focusing the design of all these systems on a contemporary interaction paradigm that emphasizes physical interaction on tangible interaction, a contemporary interaction paradigm; and second, by comprehensively studying user performance in these systems through a set of novel performance metrics grounded on epistemic actions, a relatively well established and studied construct in the literature on embodied cognition. The first system presented in this dissertation is an augmented Four-in-a-row board game. Three different versions of the game were developed, based on three different interaction paradigms (tangible, touch and mouse), and a repeated measures study involving 36 participants measured the occurrence of three simple epistemic actions across these three interfaces. The results highlight the relevance of epistemic actions in such a task and suggest that the different interaction paradigms afford instantiation of these actions in different ways. Additionally, the tangible version of the system supports the most rapid execution of these actions, providing novel quantitative insights into the real benefits of tangible systems. The second system presented in this dissertation is a tangible tabletop scheduling application. Two studies with single and paired users provide several insights into the impact of epistemic actions on the user experience when these are performed outside of a system’s sensing boundaries. These insights are clustered by the form, size and location of ideal interface areas for such offline epistemic actions to occur, as well as how can physical tokens be designed to better support them. Finally, and based on the results obtained to this point, the last study presented in this dissertation directly addresses the lack of empirical tools to formally evaluate tangible interaction. It presents a video-coding framework grounded on a systematic literature review of 78 papers, and evaluates its value as metric through a 60 participant study performed across three different research laboratories. The results highlight the usefulness and power of epistemic actions as a performance metric for tangible systems. In sum, through the use of such novel metrics in each of the three studies presented, this dissertation provides a better understanding of the real impact and benefits of designing and developing systems that feature tangible interaction.

Measurement of the relative sweetness of stevia extract, aspartame and cyclamate/saccharin blend as compared to sucrose at different concentrations

Special diets are used to mitigate many human diseases. When these diets require changes in carbohydrate content, then sweetness becomes an important characteristic. The range of low-calorie sweeteners available to the food industry is expanding. It is essential to have an exact knowledge of the relative sweetness of various sweeteners in relation to different sucrose concentrations. The objective of this study was to determine the variation on the relative sweetness of aspartame (APM), stevia [Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.) Bertoni] leaf extract (SrB) and the mixture cyclamate/saccharin - two parts of cyclamate and one part of saccharin - (C/S) with the increase in their concentrations, and in neutral and acid pH in equi-sweet concentration to 10% sucrose, using magnitude estimation. Sweetness equivalence of SrB in relation to sucrose concentrations of 20% or higher and of APM and C/S to sucrose concentrations of 40% or higher could not be determined, because a bitter taste predominated. The potency of all sweeteners decreased as the level of sweetner increased. In equi-sweet concentration of sucrose at 10%, with pH 7.0 and pH 3.0, the potency was practically the same for all sweeteners evaluated.

Synthesis, characterization and antimycobacterial activity of Ag(I)-aspartame, Ag(I)-saccharin and Ag(I)-cyclamate complexes

The present work describes the synthesis and antimycobacterial activity of three Ag(I)-complexes with the sweeteners aspartame, saccharin, and cyclamate as ligands, with the aim of finding new candidate substances for fighting tuberculosis and other mycobacterial infections. The minimal inhibitory concentration of these three complexes was investigated in order to determine their in-vitro antimycobacterial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium avium, Mycobacterium intracellulare, Mycobacterium malmoense, and Mycobacterium kansasii. The MIC values were determined using the Microplate Alamar Blue Assay. The best MIC values found for the complexes were 9.75 mu M for Ag(l)-aspartame against M. kansasii and 15.7 mu M for Ag(I)-cyclamate against M. tuberculosis.

Estudo da estabilidade térmica de adoçantes naturais e artificiais

Sweeteners provide a pleasant sensation of sweetness that helps the sensory quality of the human diet, can be divided into natural sweeteners such as fructose, galactose, glucose, lactose and sucrose, and articial sweeteners such as aspartame, cyclamate and saccharin. This work aimed to study the thermal stability of natural and artificial sweeteners in atmospheres of nitrogen and syntetic air using thermogravimetry (TG), derivative thermogravimetry (DTG), Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). Among the natural sweeteners analyzed showed higher thermal stability for the lactose and sucrose, which showed initial decomposition temperatures near 220 ° C, taking advantage of the lactose has a higher melting point (213 ° C) compared to sucrose (191 ° C). The lower thermal stability was observed for fructose, it has the lowest melting point (122 °C) and the lower initial decomposition temperature (170 °C). Of the artificial sweeteners studied showed higher thermal stability for sodium saccharin, which had the highest melting point (364 ° C) as well as the largest initial decomposition temperature (466 ° C under nitrogen and 435 ° C in air). The lower thermal stability was observed for aspartame, which showed lower initial decomposition temperature (158 ° C under nitrogen and 170 ° C under air). For commercial sweeteners showed higher thermal stability for the sweeteners L and C, which showed initial temperature of thermal decomposition near 220 ° C and melting points near 215 ° C. The lower thermal stability was observed for the sweetener P, which showed initial decomposition temperature at 160 ° C and melting point of 130 °C. Sweeteners B, D, E, I, J, N and O had low thermal stability, with the initial temperature of decomposition starts near 160 °C, probably due to the presence of aspartame, even if they have as the main constituent of the lactose, wich is the most stable of natural sweeteners. According to the results we could also realize that all commercial sweeteners are in its composition by at least a natural sweeteners and are always found in large proportions, and lactose is the main constituent of 60% of the total recorded